The 2018 Florida Statutes

(1)(a) Each assessment roll shall be submitted to the executive director of the Department of Revenue for review in the manner and form prescribed by the executive director on or before July 1. The department shall require the assessment roll submitted under this section to include the social security numbers required under s. 196.011. The roll submitted to the executive director need not include centrally assessed properties prior to approval under this subsection and subsection (2). Such review by the executive director shall be made to determine if the rolls meet all the appropriate requirements of law relating to form and just value. Upon approval of the rolls by the executive director, who, as used in this section includes his or her designee, the hearings required in s. 194.032 may be held.

(b) In addition to the other requirements of this chapter, the executive director is authorized to require that additional data be provided on the assessment roll submitted under this section and subsequent submissions of the tax roll. The executive director is authorized to notify property appraisers by April 1 of each year of the form and content of the assessment roll to be submitted on July 1.

(c) The roll shall be submitted in the compatible electronic format specified by the executive director. This format includes comma delimited, or other character delimited, flat file. Any property appraiser subject to hardship because of the specified format may provide written notice to the executive director by May 1 explaining the hardship and may be allowed to provide the roll in an alternative format at the executive director’s discretion. If the tax roll submitted pursuant to this section is in an incompatible format or if its data field integrity is lacking in any respect, such failure shall operate as an automatic extension of time to submit the roll. Additional parcel-level data that may be required by the executive director include, but are not limited to codes, fields, and data pertaining to:

2. Property characteristics, including location and other legal, physical, and economic characteristics regarding the property, including, but not limited to, parcel-level geographical information system information.

(2)(a) The executive director or his or her designee shall disapprove all or part of any assessment roll of any county not in full compliance with the administrative order of the executive director issued pursuant to the notice called for in s. 195.097 and shall otherwise disapprove all or any part of any roll not assessed in substantial compliance with law, as disclosed during the investigation by the department, including, but not limited to, audits by the Department of Revenue and Auditor General establishing noncompliance.

(b) If an assessment roll is disapproved under paragraph (a) and the reason for the disapproval is noncompliance due to material mistakes of fact relating to physical characteristics of property, the executive director or his or her designee may issue an administrative order as provided in s. 195.097. In such event, the millage adoption process, extension of tax rolls, and tax collection shall proceed and the interim roll procedures of s. 193.1145 shall not be invoked.

(c) For purposes of this subsection, “material mistakes of fact” means any and all mistakes of fact relating to physical characteristics of property that, if included in the assessment of property, would result in a deviation or change in assessed value of the parcel of property.

(3) An assessment roll shall be deemed to be approved if the department has not taken action to disapprove it within 50 days of a complete submission of the rolls by the property appraiser, except as provided in subsection (4). A submission shall be deemed complete if it meets all applicable provisions of law as to form and content; includes, or is accompanied by, all information which was lawfully requested by the department prior to the initial submission date; and is not an interim roll. The department shall notify the property appraiser of an incomplete submission not later than 10 days after receipt thereof.

(4) The department is authorized to issue a review notice to a county property appraiser within 30 days of a complete submission of the assessment rolls of that county. Such review notice shall be in writing; shall set forth with specificity all reasons relied on by the department as a basis for issuing the review notice; shall specify all supporting data, surveys, and statistical compilations for review; and shall set forth with particularity remedial steps which the department requires the property appraiser to take in order to obtain approval of the tax roll. In the event that such notice is issued:

(a) The time period of 50 days specified in subsection (3) shall be 60 days after the issuance of the notice.

(b) The notice required pursuant to s. 200.069 shall not be issued prior to approval of an assessment roll for the county or prior to institution of interim roll procedures under s. 193.1145.

(5) Whenever an assessment roll submitted to the department is returned to the property appraiser for additional evaluation, a review notice shall be issued for the express purpose of the adjustment provided in s. 200.065(11).

(6) In no event shall a formal determination by the department pursuant to this section be made later than 90 days after the first complete submission of the rolls by the county property appraiser.

(7) Approval or disapproval of all or any part of a roll shall not be deemed to be final until the procedures instituted under s. 195.092 have been exhausted.